Microphone from combo audio/mic jack doesn't detect any sound

[DmasterD]

Hello!

Recently I've come up with the idea to put the headphone/line out jack from my guitar amp to my computer. The first problem I encountered was the combo jack, since I can't directly put it into it ofcourse, so I bought an audio/mic splitter. This one:

So now I can plug my guitar into that splitter with a 6.3mm adapter to 3.5mm which I already had.

What does seem to be good is that a new recording device shows up, as you can see here:
(I changed the name to "Mic Headset". It was previously called like "Mic Right Panel... (black)" or something. But that popped up as soon as I plugged the splitter in as you can see here:

(The language is dutch)

For the next problem I need your help, I can't seem to figure this out. It does not detect any sound. I can play things on my guitar, but the green bars don't increase in that window above. I've tried the recording program from Windows 8.1, but nothing gets recorded.

I can confirm that I hear audio from the splitter when I plug my headphones in. Furthermore I can confirm too that there's sound coming from the microphone cable (my guitar). I've tested that by not plugging it into the splitter, but in my voice recorder from Olympus. When I play back the recording from my guitar, it sounds beautiful (except for chords). I haven't tested any real headset though... I dont have one currently, I need to find one. Untill that I can't confirm that the hardware could be broken.
(I have to tell that I messed with the volume coming out from the headphones/line out, since I first thought it could be too soft. I hope I didn't blow up any internal hardware. The microphone jack on my voice recorder could handle the full volume though, so I don't expect it to be blown up.)

I hope anyone can tell me here what's going wrong. I've got a Lenovo Y50 laptop with Windows 8.1.

 

[Reynod]

Well this lappy does support the combined audio jack.

Sounds like you need some sort of preamp between the guitar and the lappy.

 

[DmasterD]

Well this lappy does support the combined audio jack.

Sounds like you need some sort of preamp between the guitar and the lappy.

I do read that all over the internet, so that could be possible. Although it seems strange to me that the signal coming from my amplifier does have enough energy to let sound come out of my headphones, but my laptop can't read that signal.

I hear normal sound volume out of my headphones (at 100% gain though) when I put it into the "emulated line out & headphones" of my amp, so I'm guessing the amplitude is high enough to detect, about 1V. I read the computer microphone input requires 10mV at least to detect something.

I would assume my voice recorder has about the same specs for its microphone input (which could be an entirely wrong assumption), and there it does work. I don't get it. What's even more strange is when the gain at my amp is at 5%, the signal is strong enough for my voice recorder to record it at the right volume through that "emulated line out & headphones" output. So it's like my voice recorder is super sensitive, and my laptop is deaf.

 

[Reynod]

I plugged my 83 MIJ strat into one of my core2 laptop mic inputs ... it works ok. Tried 4 different guitars. Guitars with humbuckers seem to have more output juice than the single coils too .. .so if your bridge is a P90 select that and see if the volume is higher. Also, turn the volume and tune controls flat out.

Try installing something like an effects program - try one of the free ones.

I find they work but through a low powered laptop there is a lot of lag ... you might find it works.

Essentially it will process your guitar input and feed it back through the headphones like an effects pedal.

You might have a software issue with your audio drivers ... there is one fro recording and one for playback.

http/www.guitarsite.com/best-guitar-effects-software/

 

[DmasterD]

I plugged my 83 MIJ strat into one of my core2 laptop mic inputs ... it works ok. Tried 4 different guitars. Guitars with humbuckers seem to have more output juice than the single coils too .. .so if your bridge is a P90 select that and see if the volume is higher. Also, turn the volume and tune controls flat out.

Try installing something like an effects program - try one of the free ones.

I find they work but through a low powered laptop there is a lot of lag ... you might find it works.

Essentially it will process your guitar input and feed it back through the headphones like an effects pedal.

You might have a software issue with your audio drivers ... there is one fro recording and one for playback.

http/www.guitarsite.com/best-guitar-effects-software/

I tried AmpliTube, but some weird sounds started coming out. I guess it was applying effects on the background noise. But that didn't get me anywhere. So...

Then I tried the Guitar Rig Demo. The start screen is useful there since it gave me direct feedback. When I selected my internal microphone, I could hear myself speak. After that I used the splitter again. I plugged the line out of my amp to the microphone input, with everything as flat as possible. As I feared, no sound was given as feedback. (I checked again if my voice recorder recorded any sound from it to be sure there was a signal coming out of the amp, that was fine.)

I also tried connecting my guitar directly to the microphone input. But that didn't work either. I've got an ES-339 Pro, with that guitar I can select either of both pickups on it to be single coil or humbucker, so I messed with that, but my laptop still didn't catch any signals.